Action-bracket for grand pianos



F. L. GEORGE.

ACTION BRACKET FOR GRAND PIANOS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 9, I919- I N VEN TOR.

F RA Mr L. GEORGE BY w/ Wromwzvs.

PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK L. GEORGE, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

ACTION IBRAGKET FOR GRAND PIANOS.

Application filed. September To all whom 2'25 may concern Be it known that I, FRANK L. Gnonon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Action-Brackets for Grand Pianos, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to action brackets for grand pianos and consists of the novel features herein shown, described and claimed.

rill grand actions of today, among other defects, have one serious condition which is an almost intolerable nuisance to the tuner and repair man, and the time and labor consumed and wasted by these same men in handling this particular piece of work costs somebody many a dollar which should and can now be saved.

Grand actions are so constructed that in order to remove a key to perform half a minutes work the entire action must be removed from the key-frame cleaning everything away from above the key-board be fore a key may be removed, and when the work is completed then the entire operation, must be gone through again in replacing the action in position once more; all of which consumes much time in order to be able to remove the key on which to accomplish a few moments work.

In order to remove the action from the key-frame all screws which hold the five metal brackets firmly to the key-frame must first be removed in order to lift the action clear of the key board so that a xey may be removed. Another defectfound in the conventional mountings for grand piano ac tions where all the brackets are firmly screwed down is that of changing the hammer-throw, that is the permanent distance from the point of the hammer to the wire which is normally one and three-fourths inches; when it is desired to change this to a greater or less distance with the actions now in use, each and every capstan screw must be turned either up or down until the hammer has been adjusted to the desired distance, then all regulating screws as well as back checks must be carefully looked over to see that they are properly adjusted. This piece of work when'performed by an expert regulator requires approximately three hours time.

N ow again the soft pedal operation ofthe Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 21, 1920. e, 1919. Serial no. 322,732.

g and actions now in use is of the shifting pe, that is the entire action is shifted dewise by the pedal, the object being to cause the hammers to strike two unison wires instead of three, and so on, and result in decreasing the volume of sound produced. This system produces several very cisagreeable and faulty results; in the first place the entire action-frame and all must be placed into the piano like a drawer in a urQ and in order to have it slide forth and back must be left loose in the piano and cannot be screwed down securely and permanently; the objections to this are numerous and can readily be imagined. Again the use of this pedal by the performer seldom throws the action exactly the same distance, resulting in the points of the hammers seldom striking the wires in the same spot and not only causes a very disastrous swearing to the points of the felt hammers but also results in a most displeastone known as a woolly tone. Then ain, counting from the extreme left or bass end of the piano keyboard, approxin'iately the first twelve hammers strike only one wire each; and approximately the next fifteen hammers strike two wires each; then the remaining hammers strike three wires each. Now, it will readily be understood that when the action is shifted sidewise by the performer for the soft tone effect the result is very disappointing so far as the piano action is concernec, as the first twelve hammers still strike the same one wire each and consequently do not decrease the volume of tone at all. The next named fifteen hammers shift over far enough to strike only one of the two wires struck when in the normal position, therefore decreasing the original volume of tone just per cent. or onehalf; then the remaining hammers each shift sidewise far enough to'strike two of the original three wires, thereby decreasing the tone volume thirty-three and one-third per cent. or one-third of the normal tone volume; consequently the result is that part of the tone is reduced onethird, another part one-half and still another section none whatever, and were it not for the fact that the pianist studiously endeavors to control the force of his blow upon the keys in order to partially equalize things the result would be entirely disastrous.

My object is to overcome these and other objections.

My action bracket including the means for operating the same by the foot of a performer is called the to-nom-e-ter pedal, meaning tone measurer.

The figure is a side elevation of an ac tion bracket or tonometer device embodying the principles of my invention, parts running crosswise of the bracket being shown in section and other parts being broken away and shown in section. V

The piano key 1, the capstan screw 2 mounted upon the piano key, the wippen 3 resting upon the capstan screw and pivotally connected to the support flange 4 mounted-upon the support rail 5, and the action 6 are shown, described and claimed in detail in my companion application for actions for grand pianos, Serial hid-322731.

The supporting post 7 is rigidly mounted upon the key-frame 8 by screws 9 and extends upwardly a considerable distance. The metal bracket 10 has a forwardly extending arm 11 connected to the upper end of the support 7 by a screw 12. The base 13 is formed integral with the arm 11 and extends horizontally backwardly on a slightly lower level than the arm 11.

The expansive coilspring 14 is mounted upon the key-frame 8 just behind the center of the base 13, and .the base 13 rests upon the spring 14, there being a lug 15 ex tending downwardly from the base 13 into the spring 14 to hold the spring in place.

The extension 16 extends horizontally backwardly from the base 13 upon a slightly lower level. A felt 17 is mounted upon the key-frame 8. A. soft pedal screw 18 is tapped upwardly through the extension 16 and has a head 19 upon its lower end to en-.

gage the felt 17 and a kerf 20 in its upper end, so that the screw maybe manipulated with a screw-driver or the like.

v The normal screw 21 is inserted downwardly through a felt 22 and through a large opening 23 in the extension 16 and tapped into the key-frame 8, so that by manipulating the normal screw 21 the spring 14 is expanded or contracted to regulate the normal position of the action 6 relative to thepiano wires, and so that by manipulating t e soft pedal screw 13 the I shift of the action 6 downwardly under the influence of the soft pedal may be accurately adjusted. 1

VA soft pedal bar 24 extends upwardly through'a slot in the key-frame 8 and above the key-frame Soto a point above the rear end of the extension 16, and an arm 25 is bent forwardly from the upper end of the pedal bar 24 to, engage on top of the rear end of the extension 16, so that when the soft pedal is operated the extension 16 will be pulled downwardly against the tension of the spring 14 until the head 19 strikes the felt 17, as shown in dotted lines, and this not used.

operation lowers the entire piano action Grelative to the piano wires. The soft pedal bar 24 is adjustable where it connects to the trap action on the under side of the piano. This construction is not shown.

the rear end of the base 13 and has a right angled seat 27 in which the support rail 5 is mounted. A front pedestal 28 extends upwardly from the forward end of the base 13 and the rear end of thearm ll and has a seat'29 in which the regulating rail 30 is mounted andsecuredin place by a screw 31, and the pedestal 28has a seat .32 in its upper end in which the hammer flange rail 33 is mounted and secured in place by a.

screw 34. Thus the support rail 5, the regulating rail 30 and the hammer flange rail 33 are carried by the bracket 10 and, of course, the action 6 is carried bythe sup port rail 5, the regulating rail 30 and the hammer flange rail 33, so that as the bracket 10 swings upon the screw 12 the action goes up and down to regulate the position of the hammer 35 relative to the piano wire.

The arm 36 extends upwardly and backwardly from the rear end of the arm 11. The arm '37 extends forwardly and upwardly from the pedestal 26 and oins with the rear end of the arm 36. The arm 38 extends backwardly and downwardly from the seat 32 and the upper end of the pedestal 28 and joins withthe arms 36 -and 37.

The arm 39extends upwardly from the pedestal 26. The arm 40 extends backwardly and upwardly from the rear end of the arm 38 and joins with the upper end of the arm 39, and a bearing 41 is formed at the upper ends of the arms 39 and 40.' The arms 39 and 40 and the bearing 41 are for the purpose of connecting a touch regulator which Ihave shown, described and claimed in a companion applicati on,Serial No. 3227 30, and these parts are unnecessary to the action bracket where the touch regulator is When the rear end of the action bracket 10 is drawn downwardly by the soft pedal the support rail 5 is moved downwardly thus.

pressing the wippen 3 upon the capstan 2, and the rear end of the key 1 is supported upon the felt 42 upon the key-frame 8, and

the action 6 is swung upwardly thus moving the hammer 35 upwardly near to the piano wire, as shown in dotted lines. At the time the support rail 5 is moved downwardly the hammer flange rail 33 is moved in pro portion to the relative distance from the screw 12 and the regulating rail 30 is also moved downwardly.

Thus i secure a soft pedal action through the action bracket 10 which raises and lowers the action 6 instead of shifting the The hammer stroke is id ustee to the desired distance up ..n by manipulating the normal screw if desired to secure the soft pedal effect continuously for a time the screw 21 may be properly adjusted and it will not be necessary to operate the soft pedal.

By removing the screw 21 the bracket 10 carrying the entire action may be swung upwardly and forwardly on the screw 12 as far as desired and then the key 1 may be quickly and easily lifted from the key-frame for repair or for any other purpose, and by removing the screws 12 and 21 the bracket and action may be removed.

Thus I have produced an action bracket adapted to be pivotally mounted at its forwa d end and adapted to be connected to a soft pedal at its rear end and having a spring for raising the bracket to normal position, an adjusting screw for limiting the downward swing, and an adjusting screw for limiting the upward swing, the bracket being adapted to carry the entire action.

Various changes may be made Without departing from the spirit of my invention as claimed.

I claim:

1. An action bracket adapted to be pivotally mounted at its forward end, resilient means supporting the rear end of the bracket, an adjusting screw limiting the downward movement of the rear end, an adaction 5 3 153.

H, reaon justing screw limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket, and

means operatively connecting the rear end to a soft pedal.

2. An action bracket adapted to carry an action and adapted to be pivotally mounted at its forward end, means yieldingly supporting the rear end of the bracket, adjustable means limiting the downward movement of the rear end of the bracket, adjustable means limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket, and means operatively connecting the rear end of the bracket to a soft pedal.

3. An action bracket adapted to be pivotally mounted at its forward end, a spring supporting the rear end of the bracket, an adjusting screw limiting the downward movement of the rear end of the bracket,

and an adjusting screw limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket.

4-. An action bracket for grand pianos, comprising a bracket adapted to carry an action comprising a mechanism embodying hammers and pivotally mounted on a proper base; a spring supporting the rear end of the bracket; and adjustable means for limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket, whereby the distance of the hammers to the strings may be regulated and a desired effect in total volume may be produced.

5. An action bracket for grand pianos comprising a bracket adapted to carry an action comprising a mechanism embodying hammers and pivotally mounted on a proper base, springs disposed to carry the weight of the action with the hammers close to the piano strings, in which position a pianissimo effect is produced, and means operating to draw the bracket downwardly, whereby the hammers will be moved toward the strings and decrease the volume of sound to the desired degree.

6. An action bracket for grand pianos, comprising a bracket adapted to carry an action comprising a mechanism embodying hammers, said bracket being pivotally mounted at its forward end; a spring removably supporting the rear end of the bracket; and removable adjusting means limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket, the bracket being, on removal of the adjusting means, free to swing on its pivot at the forward end, thereby permitting access to the keys of the piano for removal or repair.

7. An action bracket for grand pianos, comprising a bracket adapted to carry an action comprising a mechanism embodying hammers; a removable pivot supporting the forward end of the bracket; a removable spring supporting the rear end of the bracket; and adjustable and removable means for limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket, said bracket and said spring being the only supporting means of the bracket, so that on removal of the means for limiting the upward movement of the rear end of the bracket, and removal of the pivot, the bracket and the action carried thereby may be removed from the piano.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

FRANK L. GEORGE. 

